Name: Social Policy Responses During COVID-19 in East Asia and Beyond
Start: 2026-01-21T12:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-01-21T13:30:00-05:00
Location: Weatherhead East Asian Institute (located at the School of International and Public Affairs)

Social Policy Responses During COVID-19 in East Asia and Beyond

Julia Shu-Huah Wang examines how Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong responded to COVID-19 compared to other countries.
About this Event

For non-Columbia affiliates, registration is required to access the Morningside campus. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 4:00pm on Jan. 20 for campus access.

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Full Talk Title: Social Policy Responses During COVID-19 in East Asia and Beyond from a Comparative Perspective

Speaker: Julia Shu-Huah Wang, Associate Professor, National Taiwan University

Moderator: Qin Gao, Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice; Acting Director of the Asian American Initiative; Associate Dean for Doctoral Education; Director of China Center for Social Policy, Columbia School of Social Work

Julia Shu-Huah Wang examines how Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong responded to COVID-19 compared to other countries. Drawing on two projects, she analyzes (1) model family data from East Asia, the U.S., and Europe to trace social policy changes before, during, and after the pandemic, and (2) country-level indicators across two decades from over 140 countries using panel regression. The presentation highlights cross-national differences in the design and effectiveness of social policy responses.

Speaker's Bio: Dr. Wang currently leads several research projects, including studies on global welfare regimes and social safety nets in East Asia. She serves on the Board of Governors of the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security, as Secretary of the East Asian Social Policy Research Network, and as a member of the Social Policy Committee of the Society for Social Work and Research, USA. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University School of Social Work.

This event is part of the 2025-2026 lecture series "COVID-19 Governance and Impacts: China from Comparative Perspectives." The series will be part of the China COVID Project, a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary research initiative funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. It aims to spotlight new empirical and theoretical research that interrogates China’s post-COVID standing through social, economic, political, and gender-based lenses. It features scholars working on governance, public health, digital statecraft, labor, gender, and civil society responses in China and Asia. The series will foster public dialogue and contribute to documentation and analysis of the pandemic’s legacy.

This event is part of the Andrew J. Nathan Taiwan Lecture Series and is hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by the Columbia China Center for Social Policy.